Once
in a while, and entire issue of a comic book is devoted to an all-out battle
royale between the good guy and the bad guy. For some, that’s enough. For
others, $3.99 is too much to pay for a story sequence that lasts mere minutes.
But I suppose it all depends on how well that battle is written. In this case,
not so much.

Batman
(Beyond) is battling Joker (Beyond), a cybernetic avatar of the original Joker,
who has captured Robin (Beyond) and is preparing to give him a taste of Mr.
Crowbar. Fortunately, Terry has Bruce AND Dick feeding him intel from the
Bat-cave. Unfortunately, the Joker overhears Terry call Bruce by name.

First of
all, in a world of secret identities, I find this security oversight more than
a little careless. At a later point in the battle, Dick Grayson arrives in the
Batmobile (Beyond) to rescue Terry, and Terry calls him by name.

Meanwhile,
the Joker wonders who the mysterious “Bruce” is. And if he heard “Bruce” he
probably heard “Grayson” so is the answer so terribly far out of reach of a
homicidal genius? And that’s assuming that after all these years, the Joker
hasn’t figured out the Bruce Wayne/Batman connection.

So, it
appears Matt McGinnis will get that crowbar to the head like I hoped for last
issue. Can’t say I’m proud of that bit of foresight, but if there’s one thing
we know about comics, it’s that nobody stays dead forever.